A Review of Assistive Technology in Special Education ^†

Abstract

Assistive technology (AT) is transforming special education by making learning more accessible and inclusive for students with disabilities. By leveraging emerging technologies, AT enhances engagement, personalizes learning experiences, and fosters integration into mainstream education. This paper explores the role of AT in supporting diverse learning needs and improving educational outcomes, highlighting its potential to create more inclusive and adaptive learning environments, and exploring some of the challenges and future hopes.

1. Introduction

Disability is an inherent aspect of humanity. Approximately 1.3 billion individuals, constituting around 16% of the worldwide population, presently endure substantial disabilities. [1]. This number is continuously increasing due to aging and the growing prevalence of noncommunicable diseases. The population suffering from impairments is subjected to several inconveniences given that disability is characterized by limitations in performing normal activities [1].

One of the most prominent challenging areas for people with disabilities is education; people endure education discrimination as their needs are rarely accommodated and taken in consideration when preparing and teaching syllabuses. Unfortunately, special education is often delivered through special classes that require segregation of the students with impairments, with diminished curriculums and minimal peer interaction opportunities [2]. This form of special education defeats the purpose of helping students achieve their full potential by denying them access to the same materials taught to their peers and disregards the importance of being integrated into society by marginalizing them in special schools and classes [3].

This paper reviews studies centered around making education accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities. It outlines the use of different assistive technologies—such as artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), and human–computer interaction (HCI)—to support the inclusion of students with special needs in mainstream education. Integrating students with impairments into regular schools involves providing them the necessary assistive tools and the right technology to effectively benefit from classes [2].

Section 1 defines assistive technology in general, highlighting its purpose, key features, and relevance in the context of special education. Section 2 explores the contribution and application of artificial intelligence in personalized education. Then, Section 3 presents the internet of things and its use to enhance both classroom and campus experience for students with disabilities. Section 4 introduces human–computer interaction, emphasizing its role in improving accessibility in educational settings, and Section 5 addresses the main challenges that hinder the adoption of assistive technology. Finally, Section 6 offers a synthesis of the discussed technologies and their impact, while Section 7 concludes the paper with a summary and an overview of possible solutions.

2. Assistive Technology

Assistive technology is defined as any equipment, product, or software used to help people with disabilities improve their capacities and overcome the constraints caused by their impairments [4]. Exploiting assistive technology in special education is highly beneficial. Students with special needs require special adjustments, and many available assistive tools could offer the features needed to aid the students [5]. Choosing appropriate assistive technology is the key to maximize its effectiveness; it should be objective-oriented while being mindful of the student’s requirements rather than purely based on the student’s impairment category [6].

Assistive tools can be based on different technologies: artificial intelligence (AI), Extended Reality (XR), internet of things (IoT), human–computer interaction (HCI), digital twins, and the metaverse [7]. Each of these technologies offers special features with unique potential use cases in special education. The following sections detail some of these technologies and the advantages they offer.

3. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence refers to the capacity of computers to emulate human cognitive processes, encompassing learning from past experiences, decision-making, and tasks simulating human behavior [8]. In educational contexts, it is specifically useful as it permits the early detection of disabilities, and the personalization of education to fit special needs.

3.1. Help in Early Detection

In education, as in life generally, the sooner an anomaly is detected, the easier its treatment becomes. Being aware of a student’s disability early on allows us to address it more effectively. This is mostly significant in primary school, where many unidentified students with impairments are mischaracterized as inattentive or unmotivated, causing them to miss out on an essential part of their education, therefore predisposing them to greater academic difficulties in upcoming classes. For instance, the most ubiquitous hereditary root of intellectual disability, Fragil X Syndrome (FXS), is significantly underdiagnosed in the general population. AI can improve and facilitate the process of diagnosing disabilities. For instance, an intelligence-assisted pre-screening solution can accelerate the diagnosis of FXS. It is based on a forest classifier trained on clinical and demographic data, to speed up the identification of FXS, which can lead to prompt intervention [9].

3.2. Personalized Education

In recent years, AI has been progressively integrated into mainstream education [10]. Its capacity to enable personalized education is what makes it revolutionary in classrooms, especially for students with disabilities. For students with hearing impairments, Interactive Solutions Incorporation developed the I-Communicator, a tool that employs automatic speech recognition to transcribe spoken language into text or sign language [11]. Students with speech disability may benefit from a different type of AI tools, designed for their requirements. Stoll et al. [12] developed an innovative technology using the recent advances in Neural Machine Translation; it consists of a sensor-equipped glove that detects hand movements, uses a trained neural network model to map them to sign language, and communicates the data to a connected computer, to be interpreted into speech. Students with visual impairments employ specialized technologies to enhance their educational experience, one of which is the SMART Brailler. It functions similarly to a conventional braille writer when the electricity is turned off, generating hard-copy braille. Upon activation, the user is provided with immediate auditory and visual feedback, enabling a visually impaired student to hear information being brailled and a sighted user to simultaneously observe the print on the screen. [13].

4. Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of real-world devices that are connected to each other and can gather, send, and analyze data over the internet. These devices include sensors, smart appliances, wearables, industrial machinery, and other technologies that enable automation, remote monitoring, and astute decision-making [14].

4.1. IoT in Education

Integrating IoT in special schools goes beyond the application of the latest technologies in educational systems; it aims to incorporate inclusivity and efficiency into conventional schools to make them more interactive, collaborative, and accessible for all [7]. In education, the Internet of Things includes four essential technologies, namely, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, sensor technology, intelligent technology, and nano technology, embodied in classroom teaching, extracurricular pursuits, and educational management [15]. Abdel-Baset et al. [16] suggests a framework for decision-making in educational environments that implements, among other different tools, neurosensors to determine cognitive brain activity of students. This data of how a student’s brain reacts and engages with classes is extremely valuable in improving special education and detecting what materials need more reinforcement. For students with motor disability, a swipe-to-type technology was developed by Shariff et al. [17] to improve text input. It uses IoT devices to recognize swiping gestures, combined with machine learning algorithms adjustable to learning patterns to better match the user’s motor skills and preferences and maximize accuracy. Furthermore, students with hearing impairments could benefit from IoT by connecting smart devices to the classroom, to convert audio inputs into written text. Jacobs et al. introduced SpecAssist: smart glasses that use integrated microphones to transcribe audio inputs using sound recognition. However, adapting this solution presents multiple challenges regarding the accuracy of transcription, the durable performance with limited battery power, the display technology… [18].

4.2. IoT in School Environment

The use of IoT in setting up the environment for education is immensely advantageous and impactful. Auto-regulating temperature and light sensors allow the customization of surroundings to accommodate students with sensory issues. Having students at ease in classrooms helps maintain their attention on academic content rather than sensory discomforts. Kim et al. [19] proposed a prototype of a system that helps students with disabilities have a better campus experience. The system consists of a smart watch paired with a mobile device and requires an IoT infrastructure linked to a cloud service. The students use gestural input and text-to-speech output, and the watch was authorized to operate on campus IoT objects to execute useful operations (e.g., unlock doors, monitor rooms) [18].

5. Human–Computer Interaction

Human–computer interaction (HCI) is the study and design of interactions between people and computer systems. It focuses on creating intuitive, efficient, and user-friendly technologies by considering human behavior, cognitive abilities, and ergonomic principles. HCI combines elements from computer science, psychology, and design to improve usability, accessibility, and overall user experience in digital environments [20].

5.1. HCI in Education

HCI, by definition, promotes inclusivity and accessibility. The products are designed to accommodate user’s preferences, making them easily adaptable to educational contexts. For instance, web user interfaces that are adaptable for people with visual impairments are exploitable for educational use [21]. Alex Wan et al. [22] developed an intelligent mathematics e-tutoring system that aims to detect when students with specific learning disabilities experience negative emotions while solving math problems by analyzing their gaze, response time, and inputs and employs proactive strategies (e.g., hints or brain breaks) to reduce and regulate them. A different education issue that HCI technology helps overcome is the short attention span for students with mental difficulties: students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), for instance, struggle with staying focused on course material. Brain–computer interface technology (BCI) is one of the many aspects of HCI. It allows us to measure bio-signals, attention being one of them. Being able to assess the attention of students through courses is key to better personalization and more effective education [23]. Another HCI application is the customization of e-learning interfaces to make them user-friendly for students with cognitive limitations. This is achieved through a streamlined interface that focuses on the required features and eliminates unnecessary distractions [24]. Interface design is very versatile in special education; it is also exploited in the conception of interactive whiteboards to make them suitable for students with learning difficulties [25].

5.2. HCI in School Environment

HCI is a powerful technology that enables multiple functionalities. Salai et al. [26] came up with a solution to empower individuals with disabilities and promote autonomy. It consists of a push button that launches clicked user interfaces with simplified demos. When placed around campus, these buttons guide students to navigate around schools smoothly.

6. Synthesis

Assistive technology has a crucial role in enabling special education, by utilizing revolutionary technology advancements to benefit students with impairments and help integrate them into schools. The reviewed articles present a wide range of assistive technology and their exploitation in educational contexts. These assistive tools, while having the same ultimate goal, cater to different special needs and use different underlying technologies.

Table 1. Synthesis of AT in education.

Technology	Specific Tool	Reference	Disability Type
			Physical	Mental
AI	I-Communicator	[11]	Hearing Impairment
	Sensor glove with neural network	[12]	Speech Impairment
	SMART Brailler	[13]	Visual Impairment
	Pre-screening AI system for FXS	[9]		Intellectual Disability
IoT	Swipe-to-type system	[17]	Motor Disability
	Audio converters	[18]	Hearing Impairment
	Environmental sensors (light/temp)	[19]	Sensory Issues
	Campus navigation system	[18]	General Disability
HCI	Math e-tutoring interface	[22]		Cognitive Disability
	BCI-based attention tracking	[23]		ADHD/Attention Disorders
	Cognitive-friendly e-learning UI	[24]		Cognitive Disabilities
	Interactive whiteboards	[25]		Learning Difficulties
	Push button campus UI guides	[26]	Mobility or Cognitive Disability

provides a classification of the solutions discussed in terms of technology type and supported impairment.

7. Challenges and Future Hopes

Despite the many advantages of AT in education, it faces considerable challenges. Schools, when equipped with AT infrastructure and multiple interconnected devices, become more susceptible to attacks. Exposing the whereabouts of students in API’s is surely useful for better campus experience, but also critical when malicious individuals intercept it [27]. Therefore, investments in AT come with investments in security. And given that most ATs gather personal information of students, whether through captors and sensors, to introduce to AI models for better personalization, the data could not only be the means for physical attacks but also the end goal for cyber-attacks. The data is in itself very valuable, and its integrity and protection are a major concern to protecting student’s privacy.

According to Bal et al. [28], one of the biggest challenges special education faces is the disparities in disabilities. It is impossible to have one universal solution that accommodates every type of impairment. Each category of students requires a specific type of support for the execution of specific tasks. This support could be offered by one tool, or a combination of many, which is not simple, as tools currently do not have a standard design, and are not conceived to be integrated with each other. Furthermore, innovations that serve the same purpose are not unified; each company has its unique design patent [7].

The lack of versatile and multi-purpose technologies, besides being an issue, is part of the reason why AT faces financial challenges. Such a tool, when acquired by a school, is rarely useful to all students as it purchased for a specific purpose; each case of impairment necessitates a distinct financial investment [29]. And with the lack of funding, being able to invest in high-technology tools is a luxury most schools and communities cannot afford, making AT inaccessible for most students [16].

Looking forward, AT is expected to evolve from being a compensatory tool into a proactive enabler of special education. One of the promising aspects of the development of inclusive education is the fast advancement of assistive technologies, especially those powered by AI, which allow the adaptation to the distinct requirements and learning styles of students with impairments in real time. These tools could offer tailored courses, with immediate support and feedback [30,31].

Another potential direction is the integration of AT into Universal Design for Learning (UDL) frameworks. Rather than worrying about the integration of AT after the fact, future educational systems are oriented toward embedding accessibility by design from the conception of the tool, to ensure it caters to the needs of students with diverse types of impairments [32]. This shift, from reactive to proactive inclusion, is a crucial evolution in the field.

In addition, the expansion of affordable, mobile-based AT, offers hope for reducing the barriers to access, particularly in underserved and underprivileged areas that lack the necessary infrastructure for specialized assistive equipment [33].

Future hopes also focus on including the enhancement of social skills, self-confidence, and emotional wellbeing. Inclusive education models are centered around facilitating communication, peer interaction, and independence in exploring learning materials [30].

8. Conclusions

Disability is part of the human experience, yet it has been neglected in education for so long. Education, being a fundamental right, should not be exclusive for the able-bodied. The journey towards a more equitable education system is enabled by technological advancements. Innovations, such as in artificial intelligence, internet of things, and human–computer interaction, that tailor solutions to support people with impairments have resulted in several assistive technology tools in special education.

This paper reviewed a set of AI-, HCI-, and IoT-based assistive solutions, presenting the type of impairments addressed and their pedagogical contribution. While considerable advancements are made, special education still faces multiple barriers to full implementation and effectiveness.

To overcome the current challenges, future work should be centered around preserving the privacy of students, making assistive technology more affordable, and finding middle ground between improving the personalization of tools and enhancing their adaptability and versatility.